Medieval Culture: A Compendium of Critical Topics

Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages, ed. Albrecht Classen (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, in preparation).

Contributors, please note: November 10, 2013 is the last possible date to submit your pieces.

Well, that date also passed. But now, the very last date to have everything in will be March 31, 2014.

This is a new book project, and contributors are invited to join, writing individual articles on a wide range of fundamental aspects relevant for the cultural history of the European Middle Ages.

Each entry should consist of ca. 20 pp. Scholarship must be included in endnotes (only abbreviated information), followed by a bibliography with the full information. Each entry must cover the topic from an interdisciplinary and trans-European perspective. The purpose is to provide concise, yet complex information on the basis of most recent scholarship.

Time line:Assignment of topics to be completed by Nov. 2011

Submission of articles by Oct. 31, 2012 (alas, this will have to be flexible)

Revisions by the end of January 2013

Well, this did not work out with a majority of pieces. So, let's try to shoot for end of Feb. 2013 for the first version of the remaining pieces. Thanks.

Well, this did not work either for many, so here is the absolutely final deadline to submit at least the first rough draft: NOV. 10, 2013. Thereafter I will simply cut out what has not yet been submitted.

There are very specific format requirements, so if you are unclear, I'll send you my sample article once again.

Here are the criteria:

· a maximum of 60.000 characters per article (including spaces)· structure: capital letters as labels for top-level headings; the sub-structure is up to the individual author· optional: up to three images (B/w) per article; author has to provide files in suitable quality (min. 300dpi), is also resposible for obtaining rights· citation: always in-text and in brackets: (Surname Year, Page); Example: (Classen 2001, 53); for edited works: (Surname, ed., Year, Page); Example: (Classen, ed., 2010, 53)

. No foot- or endnotes!!!

If you can, would you include a reference to the Handbook of Medieval Studies, if there is a special article in your area? Thanks.

Possible points of errors in formatting, please watch them and follow the list below:

there is no comma between city of publication and year

pp. (without 'pp.') always at the end

no --, but always m-dash when there is a pause or break in the sentence

never any underlining or any bold

for number sequences, please use a n-dash: 46–49

always write out all years for historical events or figures (1418-1495)

the adjective 'medieval' is spelled with the small 'm.

Antiquity, if not beginning a sentence, is written with a small 'a'

Renaissance is always capitalized

make sure you have always a short bibliography, of ca. 5-10 titles, and then a full bibliography with all titles included

when there are two editors, no comma after the first name of the first editor since there is then an 'and': Miller, John and Francis Smith. If three or more ed., limit to three: Miller, John, Francis, Smith, Tom Ward, et al., ed.

for articles in a journal, use the colon after the year: (2009): 14-27; if in a volume, no 'in', only the book title in italics etc.

always the author's name followed by a comma to separate from title

we do not include book series and vol. no.

if you need to identify a vol. no, follow that after the book title, i.e.: (Paris 1941), vol. 1, 10-55.

when parenthesis within another, use square brackets

in text, when referring to an ed., cite only the ed. name year, and pp.

as to numbers, use this model: 2-4; 17-34; 154-59, 1440-48

only ed., even when two or more editors

toward, not towards

onward, not onwards

American spelling (analyze, criticize, etc.)

when using slashes to indicate verse break, always a space before and after

main title: pt. 15, subheadings and text: 12 pt., please use Times New Roman

always m-dashes instead of double-hyphen, and no space before and after the dash

in bibliography, no comma between city and year. In the case of US cities, normally add: e.g.: (Tempe, AZ, 2008). Otherwise, in the text: (New York 2011)

spell out centuries, e.g.: thirteenth century, and when used as an adjective, do not forget the hyphen: thirteenth-century discourse (note: century not capitalized!)

text always single-spaced

Do not indent at first paragraph

Begin with header of your topic, Times Roman 15, rest of text in 12 pts

subtitles of articles and books separated by a colon!

Ph.D. diss.: last name first name, "Title," Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2013

All major words in book and article titles are capitalized (first letter); this also applies to subtitles, irrespective of the way how the title might be printed in the book

Use as abbreviations: trans. and ed. or rpt. (this always follows the title, except in the bibliography

Do not forget to color mark key words for the index (blue, green, and red)

always provide at least rough dates for persons

do not use bold; if there is a title of a primary work in a book title, which you must italicize, have that title then not-italicized

always have a spatium between abbreviated first names (inc. names of publishers, such as D. S. Brewer)

if you have any question about formatting, ask me first before sending your piece

no superscripta, esp. not for 14th century etc.

in the bibliography, always repeat the name of the author (we will eliminate that later)

commas and periods always within the quotation "marks."

when list of items, people, etc., do not forget the comma separating all of them despite the 'and' (like here before the etc.)

· in case of several publications by the same author/editor within one year: use letters for distinction (2001a, 2001b etc.)., and always repeat their full names (will be changed later, but for technical reasons it is safer if you do so for now!) in the bibliography· Select bibliography at the end of each article with 5-10 titles (in case of very broad subjects: max. 15) à only the most important texts, the “essentials” (as service for students)· Complete bibliography that will be part of a huge combined bibliography at the end of the handbook. Here, every source you cited in your article is listed (separated into primary and secondary works). Important: the bibliographical items have to match directly the in-text-citation, so that users can find what they are searching for in the huge bibliography (example: If a collection of texts is called “Classen, ed., 2010” in your article, it has to be listed under “Classen” in the bibliography, not under the collection’s title)

- The titles in the select bibliography must be repeated in the complete bibliography.

· For the general bibliographic style refer to Prof. Classen’s sample article· Three indexes are planned: persons (authors and historical persons, no fictional characters!), works, subject-index; please mark the keywords digitally in your Word-document: persons in red, works in blue, subjects in green; please use the subject-index only at suitable points (where actual information on a subject is found, not only the keyword as such); Every instance of a term that you want to be listed in the index has to be marked separately.

Specifics: always ca., no superscripta, for millenia: C.E. vs. B.C.E.

for numbers in triplicate: not: 101-124, but: 101-24.

Topics to be covered (can be expanded, suggestions are invited): (x indicates completion)